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India’s new prime minister has provoked an angry backlash after issuing a
directive to replace English with Hindi as the primary language of the
nation’s bureaucratic elite.

Both tongues are currently used as India’s two official languages used for
conducting central government business, although the nation’s constitution
recognises 20 others including Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali.

Although most officials are able to speak and write Hindi, English remains the
preferred language among the nation’s Delhi-based senior civil servants —
many of whom are English or US-educated.

However, Narendra Modi provoked uproar last month after ordering officials in
Delhi to use Hindi as